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Jaldaboath – Rise Of The Heraldic Beasts – Review

Who’s up for some English Heraldic Templar Metal? If you’ve never heard of the term, it’s a self-titled genre that these comedic geniuses have used to describe their unique brand of music.

Formed by Meads Of Asphodel’s James Fogarty, Jaldaboath takes the hilarity of Monty Python, throws a portion of catchy metal riffs together with melodramatic keyboard trumpets giving birth to Jaldaboath.

Album opener Hark The Herald gives us a glimpse of their jovial side. In amongst the overdramatic instrumentals, the lyrics sensationalise violence in the kind of matter-of-fact japery that parodies battle metal, similar to the way that Steel Panther poke fun at hair metal.

Bash The Bishop tells the story of a group of men looking to cave the Bishop’s head in after he closed the toll bridge, while my wild case of giggles in Axe Wielding Nuns is probably self-explanatory.

To get things straight, Jaldaboath can play music. Their themes may be based around an over-the-top English humour, but that doesn’t mean they can’t play their instruments, it’s simply because of general lyrical content that their talent is overlooked.

Nevertheless, Jacque De Molay shows Jaldaboath have the ability to create slightly more serious content that sounds great too. The vocals resonate a lower growl, and the lively guitar work on the song is lovely. But there’s something slightly different from the usual synths, which are still dramatic, but feel somewhat darker.

Along similar lines of tomfoolery as Alestorm and the occasional Korpiklaani song, Jaldaboath have started their own unique strain of comic metal, which rocks the richter-scale when it comes to enjoyment.